Tales of the Lion Kings

The Prologue

Rafiki stared at the large trunk of the baobab tree with one of its precious, gourd-like fruits in his hand. He took a bite of the half he had in his hand. Then, with the other hand, he dipped a finger in the second half off the fruit and put a finishing touch on his drawing. To his left, nearly in the center was an image of Simba, the current king of the Pride Lands. Though part of it was blurred due to Rafiki wiping it away when the young lion - a mere prince at the time - was thought to be dead, the rest of it was quite intact despite its age. Below that and to the right was an image of two lions. The right one was a male with a black mane and the left one was a female.

Rafiki took one last bite of his fruit as he surveyed the newest paintings. Two cubs. There was a female with red fur like her father and a male with tawny colored fur like his mother and grandfather but with a black tail tuff. It was perfect.

"I can't pounce if you keep pushing!" a voice yelled from somewhere down below.

"I can't pounce if you keep yelling!" another voice growled.

Rafiki headed to one of the branches closest to where he heard the yelling and looked down. The two cubs from his drawing were wrestling with one another.

"Grandma told me how to do the pounce! Let me do it!" the female said.

"No! I'm older! I get to pin you first!"

Rafiki chuckled as the female cub tried to sit on her brother to hold him down. "Kivuli, Ajani, what are you doing?"

The two cubs looked up and smiled at the old baboon. Ajani pushed his sister away and stood up, placing his front two paws on the bark of the tree. "We were playing, but what are you doing way up there?"

The baboon smiled. "I was painting you."

"You were?" Kivuli asked. "Can we see?"

The baboon nodded and watched as the two cubs climbed into the tree. As young as they were, climbing trees like his were easy, but he knew once they got older like their parents they would no longer be able to visit him.

"O!" Kivuli squealed. "It's so pretty! Aren't I pretty Ajani?"

Her brother rolled his eyes. "It takes a lot of talent to make you look pretty. Good job Rafiki."

Kivuli growled and pounced on her brother. The two scuffled for a moment, but Rafiki quickly interrupted, "You don't have a babysitter?"

The two cubs paused and glanced at him.

"Zazu was following us...," Ajani began.

"But in his old age," Kivuli continued, "it's hard to keep up."

"Or something like that," her brother said with a smirk.

Rafiki shook his head as he grabbed his walking stick and said, "You're so much like your parents ... and grandparents for that matter."

"We are?" Ajani asked.

He nodded.

"Rafiki," Kivuli began, "did you know our great-grandfather? You know, the king before Simba?"

"Yes."

"Did you know the king before him?" Ajani asked.

"Yes. He was one of the first people I met when I came to the Pride Lands"

"Who was he? What was he like?"

"His name was Ahadi, and he was a great king, just like all those who followed him aside from Scar."

"But what did he look like?"

Rafiki smiled slightly. "He looked a lot like you."

"Can you tell us a story?" Kivuli asked.

Rafiki tilted his head and leaned on his walking stick, "What sort of story do you want to hear?"

"Something about the Great Kings of the Past!" Ajani said.

"What about the Great Queens of the Past?" Kivuli disagreed.

Rafiki chuckled. "Ah, there is plenty of time for tales on both the kings and the queens. The question is, where do we begin?"

--

"Tales of the Lion Kings" is copyrighted to Kiana R.
Ajani and Kivuli are copyrighted to Kiana R.
Ahadi is copyrighted to Alex Simmons and the staff who created The Lion King: Six New Adventures
All Other Characters are copyrighted to Walt Disney.